I grew up in town in a house that sat on a 50-foot lot, so naturally I make that comparison when looking at Great Plains Mfg.'s new 50-foot-wide 3S-5000 grain drill, the Salina, Kan., machinery company's new addition for 2013.
The 3S-5000 comes equipped with seed boxes that hold 3.2 bushels-per-foot for a total of 149 bushels of seed wheat fully loaded. The boxes also can be split to allow for dry fertilizer application at planting.
The big drill is made up of three box sections, each with two sub-frames which flex independently on a line through the axles to follow the field contour and keep either the '00' or "00HD" (options) openers aligned for the best seed placement. Ballast and hydraulics maintain an operator-set down-pressure on the openers at all time.
Row spacing can be set at 6-, 7.5-, or 10-inches, and heavy-duty hydraulic cylinders make folding the drill into a 15-foot package for transport a "from the cab" proposition. Optional equipment allows the 3S-5000 to handle small seed for clover, alfalfa and ryegrass work, and another option includes a 400-gallon fertilizer tank.
Walking around the machine, I couldn't help but think of my dad's house and 50-foot lot, and how he had farmed with two-row equipment early in his life … and this machine can run 25 to 30 acres an hour.
MSRP on the 3S-5000 begins at $95,589. More information is available at: www.greatplainsmfg.com.